Thank you Spartans

No, I don't like losing at all, and that was ugly - we did not play well. But I was watching this one with my 13 year old son. I get him to a couple of games a year and he is becoming a die-hard Wolverine. He is playing middle school ball, and has worked his way up to starting both ways and special teams - he dreams of following in the footsteps of our local hero Des Morgan. But he is still learning about how to play all out and yet be a sportsman on the field, and a gentleman off. Today the Spartans provided a wealth of teachable moments.

The frequent unsportsmanlike conduct (like attempting to injure and remove your opponent with cheap shots like that facemask yank) showed what it is like when young men aren't taught or don't learn these lessons. Clearly Kirk Cousin's dramatic "character" speech fell on deaf ears. My son was somewhat shocked and disturbed, but learned a lot from the contrast between that ugliness, and the character and behavior of Wolverines like Denard.

He should be banned from NCAA and NFL competition for life. Any player who intentionally tries to potentially injure or kill another player, as he clearly did, should not be allowed to compete with and endanger honest athletes.

So, I doubt I'm too far of base to suggest Dantonio encourages this crap. Last year they had a cheap shot on Martin, and this year they did everything they could to take Denard out of the game... usually AFTER the play was blown dead.

That's bullshit, right? I'd like to think the Big Ten and/or MSU and/or the NCAA would do something about that crap, but there's a better chance that unicorns with laser beams on their head will fly from my ass.

It starts from the top down. Dantonio is a win at all costs type of guy, and has no qualms about how his guy conduct themselves on the field. And it starts above him too, I doubt Hollis will say anything about how they played. For them a W is a W

unfortunately most MSU fans learn their humility from their football team..check that I actually had someone tell me to watch out for hockey season (I'm a hockey fan) to which I reminded them their hockey team plays exactly like their football team w/ all the cheap shots.

Even Conboy and Tropp were suspended, except one of them did come back, right? How any coach could tolerate those players stepping onto their ice again is beyond me. I wonder what Red would have done if our hockey players ever did that (which they wouldn't be, obviously).

Honestly, I was surprised how bad they were. The facemask pull, late Denard toss were just absolutely terrible to see. They're a classless bunch of a-holes and I will guarantee that unless the B1G suspends someone, then they will be playing next week like nothing happened. It is probably good that your son saw that. You can learn just as much from watching someone do something terrible as you can by watching someone do the right thing. "You see that? Don't do that."

I am starting to wonder if Cousins is a fraud in the same mold of Sweatervest and Dantonio. He is a multiple year captain and the leader of his team. He gives speeches on character yet the group of men he leads act like criminals. Someone should put together a you tube video of the audio of his big ten speech with his teams low character highlights.

The Big Ten needs to seriously reevaluate their suspension policies if nothing gets done with Gholston and with Dantonio. Five personal fouls on the same team (and I believe two on Gholston alone) should be suspension territory. That punch in the first half and the hit on Denard should both be a game.

I just wish we had won so this doesn't sound like whiny bitching. I was saying the same thing when the game was in the air, and would be saying the same thing had we won by fifty.

What good teams do is segue personal fouls into points. We failed to do this. If we would have been able to capitalize on these errors they hurt and they come to an end. So for Sparty, the penalties were effecacious by being both demoralizing, intimidating and causing physical pain to our players. If you can't make them pay and turn it around there is no compelling reason for them to stop, and they didn't.

I'll readily acknowledge that we played like shit, got outcoached and outplayed, probably at every position/coaching group.

Still, the referees didn't have good control of the game, and Dantonio either doesn't have control of his team or he coaches them to be dirty. At the risk of sounding like a Sith, there is no in between there.

is essentially sanctioned violence. Because it happened after the whistles and was "dirty" doesn't change the fact that the rest of the game features impacts on every play would hurt most men (badly) and be classified as assualt had they not happened on the football field.

MSU won fair and square, but without dignity. Also, a thank you to their fans. 99% were good, but that 1%.....so creative with their insults, " you're gay," "faggot", "worthless faggot", "you're a wolverine homosexual."

Losing is horrible. It is worse, though, to lose to cheap shot artist thugs. I am very proud of our Michigan Men for not responding in kind. We did not play well, but we will. I do not expect the swoon of years past. I would like to believe the constant mantra of Dantonio's "character," but until he stops recruiting players who aren't in orange jumpsuits only because their actions take place on a football field, I won't believe it.

My uncle was a second-generation UM alum and lifelong Ann Arbor resident who lived and breathed Michigan football. When his eldest daughter was approaching college age, I asked him if he would be upset if she went anywhere except Michigan. He replied "No, I told her she can go anywhere she wants. But if she wants to go to State she'll have to pay her own way, because I could not physically bring myself to write a check to that place."

Anyway, Tressel suspended Reynolds for one game, saying it was (and I'm paraphrasing), "Out of character for that young man." I was incensed, and wrote to the NCAA and the Big Ten. I recieved a reply that basically said they don't interfere with a team's discipline for on the field issues. In circumstances where they feel the punishment is light, they step in, but the NCAA doesn't do anything until the Big Ten does something, and the Big Ten doesn't do anything until after the school does (or doesn't) do anything. So there you go. Nothing will come of it.

Like when Mouton got suspended retroactivley for punching a Notre Dame guy. If Dantonio has any morals (which he doesn't) he would suspend him right now for their next game after watching the replay. Then again, Rich Rod didn't suspend Mouton and tried to defend him punching a player.

in the Big Ten for many years. I used to think that the Biting Ilini teams of the Mike White-coached teams of the mid-80's were the worst. But, now it's clear that Dantonio has created an atmosphere of ill-discipline and poor sportsmanship unseen in the conference for decades. I'm SO GLAD we did not sign this Gholston creep as it's obvious he is someone of low character. Then again, he's probably just reflecting the character of the leadership at the school in Lansing.